Consultant to Assist Mid-Term Evaluation of JP on YES

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OVERVIEW OF THE POSITION

The Joint FGS-UN Programme aims at capitalising on security, governance and reconciliation achievements by expanding employment opportunities for young men and women in Somalia. As highlighted in the Economic Recovery Plan for Somalia, youth unemployment is one of the greatest obstacles to the country’s economic recovery. The plan states the aim of the government is to provide youth with employment opportunities so as to avoid the latter joining militia groups. This is to be achieved through vocational training, enterprise training and creation and rehabilitation of infrastructure through labour intensive employment methods. The programme recognizes the centrality of youth in fostering stability in the country and outlines specific interventions that can be taken within the next 18 months to begin to generate decent work opportunities for young people that will serve as positive alternatives to participation in violence and conflict. This will also contribute to the revitalization of the local economy. The employment generating interventions from this programme also aim to augment the credibility of the FGS and build trust and confidence in local governance and security sector institutions while providing immediate peace dividends to vulnerable sub-sections of the population.

As encouraged in the New Deal Compact, this joint youth employment programme is a frontline intervention of the FGS to achieve rapid results under Peace and State-building Goal (PSG) 4 (Economic Foundations), which identifies youth employment through job creation and skills development as one of the most important priority projects over the next two years. The idea of a high-visibility, government-led campaign to mobilize young people in an effort to rebuild (or build anew) critical economic infrastructure remains highly attractive from the perspectives of economic recovery and state building.

The programme aims at creating sustainable job opportunities for youth by addressing the below challenges affecting the labour supply and demand factors.

 The employment situation is bleak for Somali youth, as young people (15-24) struggle to find work, especially in the formal sector. Young Somalis cannot afford unemployment because of the absence of social protection and therefore face underemployed and are occupied in survival activities such as self-employment or as unpaid family workers. They often engage in low-productive and poor quality jobs mostly in the informal economy.

 Somalia’s private sector has a serious competitiveness problem, which translates among others into important youth unemployment and a weak export performance. In fact, the main cause of youth unemployment in Somalia appears to be a result of “demand side” factors, i.e. low demand for jobs by companies.

The joint programme was signed on 17 June 2015 for an overall period of three years (mid 2015 – mid 2018) and funded period of 18 months. Actuals funds transferred to the participating UN Organizations (FAO, HABITAT, ILO and UNDP) was on 29 September 2015. The programme was amended until 31 December 2017 upon availability of additional funds. In terms of funding, the overall project is $54m, and current approved budget until end 2017 is $22.9m ($8.9m + $14m).

The overall outcome of the project that supports PSG 4: Economic Foundations is Somali economy revitalized and expanded with a focus on livelihood enhancement, employment generation, and broad-based inclusive growth with the following sub outcomes:

As per the project document, the Joint Programme will be evaluated to inform learning, decision-making and guidance on how to implement the programme. The evaluation aims to determine the relevance and fulfilment of objectives as well as the efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and the impact of the Joint Programme.

Evaluation of a Joint Programme should be undertaken in accordance with the guidance from the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) (e.g., relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability) with an emphasis on impact at outcome level, sustainability of the results.

Mid-term evaluation is formative in nature and seek to generate knowledge, identifying best practices and lessons learned and improve implementation of the programmes during their remaining implementation and will guide the design of the next phase of the programme. As a result, the conclusions and recommendations generated by this evaluation will be addressed to its main users: the Programme Management Committee and the Project Steering Committee.

Scope of the Evaluation and Specific Objectives

The mid-term evaluation will use an expedited process to carry out a systematic, fast-paced analysis of the design, process and results or results trends of the joint programme, based on the scope and criteria included in these terms of reference. This will enable conclusions and recommendations for the joint programme to be formed within a period of approximately three months.

The unit of analysis or object of study for this mid-term evaluation is the joint programme, understood to be the set of components, outcomes, outputs, activities and inputs that were detailed in the joint programme document and amendments made during implementation.

The overall objective of the mid-term evaluation is to find out the outcome and impact of the programme project and to asses if the programme objectives are being achieved, using its resources and provide recommendations for project modification, further development and improvement. In addition, examine the changes that resulted from the project implementation and provide inputs to guide the decision making for the upcoming renewal and extension of the project including funding requirements.

This mid-term evaluation has the following specific objectives:

To discover the programme’s design quality and internal coherence (needs and problems it seeks to solve) and its external coherence with the UNDAF, the NDP and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and find out the degree of national ownership of the programme.

To understand how the joint programme operates and assess the efficiency of its management model in planning, coordinating, managing and executing resources allocated for its implementation, through an analysis of its procedures and institutional mechanisms. This analysis will seek to uncover the factors for success and limitations in inter-agency tasks as envisaged in the programme.

To identify the programme’s degree of effectiveness among its participants, its contribution to the objectives of the Youth Employment in the country including resource mobilization and effective use of resources in line with the aid effectiveness principals, and value for money.

GENERAL FUNCTIONS

Role objective:

Provision of high quality support services to the international Consultant in Mid-Term Evaluation exercise of the Joint Programme on Youth Employment Somalia (YES)

The consultant will:

• Provide information and data on socio-economic and cultural issues and norms

• Participate in the meetings, interviews and focus-group discussions with the partners and key stakeholders

• Translate the relevant Somali documents into English and interpret in the meetings, interviews, focus-group discussions

• Assist in coordination of transportation and other logistics between interview venues

• Compile the documents and other literatures obtained during field visits

• Provide national context to nuance the issues arising from discussions with national stakeholders.

Expected output:

Deliverables

High standard services and products in a timely manner: providing socio-economic and cultural issues and norms; provision of national context to the issues; organizing meetings and focus-group discussions as per the plan; active participation in the meetings and discussions; translation of the relevant documents and interpretation in the meetings and discussions; coordination of transportation and other logistics; and compilation of documents and literatures; and submission of a final performance report.

Completion date

14 working days

Payment upon completion

100%

All deliverables will be approved by PREP management to certify good completion of outputs prior to payment authorization.

Project reporting:

The consultant will report to the supervisor- Zubair Ezzat

Team management:

N/A

ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE

Education:

§ Master’s degree in Economics, Business/Public Administration.

Work experience:

§ Minimum of 7 years of demonstrable relevant Administration experience and/or minimum of 5 years of demonstrable relevant Public Administration experience.

Geographical experience:

§ Minimum of 5 years of experience in Africa with local experience in Mogadishu is an advantage.

Languages:

§ Fluency in English (essential) and Somali ().

Key competencies:

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree preferably in economics, business or public administration, development studies or any other related field is a requirement.

Years of Experience:

• Minimum five (5) years (if holding advance university degree) or seven (7) years relevant experience (if holding a first level university degree) relevant experience